


TLC

by Bluespirit



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Future Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-04
Updated: 2011-10-04
Packaged: 2017-10-24 07:34:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/260719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluespirit/pseuds/Bluespirit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>John needs a little TLC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	TLC

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> 1\. This is a little ficlet that I wrote for my annual writing weekend last month. The prompt was 'mirror'.  
> 2\. Thank you to Xanthe for beta duties & to the Write Time ladies for another fabulous weekend - & for the title! ♥
> 
> Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters and universe are the property of Stargate (II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, Gekko Productions and the Sci-Fi Channel. This fic is meant solely for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.

John flicked the wet hair out of his eyes and stepped out of the shower. He made a grab for the nearest towel but had to bite off a groan as his shoulder twinged sharply at the stretch. Son of a… He switched hands and dried off – slowly – wrapping the towel around his hips when he was done.

The mirror was fogged from the steam, and he wiped the worst away – and then kind of wished he hadn’t. Shit… there was a run of blue-red bruises all down his left side, and – he turned his head a little – oh, yeah, that looked like a doozy of a black eye coming up, too. He hissed as he poked experimentally at the swelling. Fuck, that hurt.

He blew out a long breath. Rodney was going to kill him; especially after he’d promised to take things easy since the accident. It’s not like he had much of an excuse, either; he’d just been bored. He hated being stuck on base and helping Ronon drill the latest batch of Marines had sounded like fun. And it had been, too – until John had zagged when he should have zigged, and he’d gone down hard, body and pride hurting in pretty much equal measure as he lay staring up at the vaulted glass ceiling of the gym, the breath knocked right out of him. Martino, the young lieutenant with the nifty right hook, had looked terrified, and John was guessing it was more at the thought of what Rodney might do when he heard about it, than the fact that he’d just laid out his CO.

John grinned – the kid was probably right. He’d have to remember to head Rodney off at the pass though as it really hadn’t been Martino’s fault, and he didn’t deserve sub-zero quarters or whatever other creative punishment Rodney came up with. If John was being honest, with himself if no one else, he hadn’t just misjudged the shot; he’d been too slow. Maybe Rodney was right about starting to take things easy; John was closer to fifty than forty, and some days he could feel every damn one of those years.

He dropped his hands to the edge of the washstand and rested his weight forward, staring hard at the bruised face reflected back at him… and then snorted. Introspection and meditating on ‘roads not taken’ and all that other new age bullshit had never been his thing. He was more of a ‘It’s not the years, honey… it’s the mileage’ kind of a guy anyway. Life in Pegasus was tough, and you just had to deal with it. It wasn’t like he needed to listen to some internal monologue dissecting the minutia of his life decisions anyway – Rodney was perfectly happy to do that for him, with appropriately entertaining hand waving and finger clicking thrown in.

John laughed and turned away from the mirror; he wouldn’t have it any other way. Hmmm, and maybe he could try the Indy line later and see if Rodney would offer kiss it all better. Somehow, he didn’t think that would be a problem; Rodney liked using his mouth for quite a few things other than talking.

John grinned and went to get dressed, bruises forgotten.

  
The end

**Author's Note:**

> The 'years not the mileage' quotation is, of course, from Indiana Jones & that classic scene in Raiders. :)


End file.
